This ship was a steaming, a get up and go type destroyer... It blazed a few pages in US Naval history; while I was on board!! If you don't try then you will never do anything...

Date:   9/11/2005 8:17:35 PM ( 19 y ago)

Charleston was a good place and a sad place, for me....  When I finally got on Board The Furse DDR882, it was a new experience... 

 This was one of the first line destroyers of the Atlantic fleet...  It was a Radar Picket ship...  That meant it had a Azimuth Height tracking Radar, it could track satellites, ICBMs and the high flying Spy planes... It was originally part of the DEW line early warning system, monitoring possible ICBM launches from the USSR...  These were the days of the real "Cold War"...

My Navy life changed, this was  one steaming mother....  Unlike the USS Greenwood, which operated mostly by it self on routine training duty...  The Furse was to take me many miles and thru many pages of history, yet to unfold....  The USS Furse; was the "Sentinel of the SEA"..    We were the flag ship for DES RON 4. motto "Any place, Any Time, You name it we have been there"  We put the meaning into "Been there done that".....

 One of our first assignments was to qualify for fleet operations out of Guantanamo Naval Base Cuba... Better known as GITMO...  So once again I got to do some good diving...  And life was good or so I thought... 

The Furse was into fleet operations, and that meant replenishments at sea....  We had not done any on Greenwood...  This is when you are arose and were on deck ready for the ship to ship transfers at 05:00 hours.... { This was the favorite time for repeting...}  Sometimes it was fuel, sometimes it was food stores, and sometimes it was AMMO...  We would  form a line with every other one facing each other, then pass the shells, from man to man on down to the gun magizines...

 Well I learned to try and get my rest when ever I could, because we stood Port and Starboard watches, which meant we were on for four hours then off for four, then back on for four all the while we were under way....  Because ships operation was the whole reason for our being....  {During the four hours off watch you had to sleep, shower, shave, keep up your bunk, eat, and then carry out your regular duties....  Not much time for sleep, or anything else, folks...}  But I was young, single, enjoying the world and what else did I have to do???

Yes it was to prove to be more eye opening experiences, in this young mans life... The world is big folks and what little we know about would fit into a flea's nap sack compared to the whole world.... So we will cover some more exciting experiences...

I never knew if I was just fortunate or someone had a master plan for me, but  I can say that this life has been one cake walk after another....  If you know what I mean, folks....  see  ya on the next adventure...  And yes there were some females in my life....  We will cover some of the sexier episodes, later..  So stay tuned for more fun and games....  

 see ya...  K

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